By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Brandywine Community Schools is reporting good things about their new custodial company.
Sue Furney, the district's director of business and finance, said Monday administrators have been receiving compliments on the job done by D.M. Burr Facilities Management of Flint. The board of education agreed to hire D.M. Burr in November and signed the company to a 2-year contract for $263,752 effective Dec. 26.
"We're hearing rave reviews from classroom teachers," Furney said.
In negotiations, Furney said the district encouraged D.M. Burr to increase their proposed hourly wage by $1 per hour to $8. The company agreed and said the raise would be directly passed on to the employees working in Brandywine buildings. The contract also increased the amount of hours for custodial services per week from 64 to 73.
Brandywine broke ties with Great Lakes Cleaning of St. Joseph, which the district was under contract with for the previous one and a half years. Furney said in November the district and Great Lakes Cleaning "mutually agreed that it was not a good fit."
D.M. Burr currently has contracts with Bendle Public Schools and Kearsley Community Schools, which are both in Genesee County. The move by D.M. Burr to acquire the Brandywine contract is seen as a chance for expansion, superintendent Gary Rider said during hiring in November. Damien Lipe, vice president of sales for D.M. Burr, said during negotiations his company has established an office in South Bend, Ind., and also plans to hire a supervisor for the southwest Michigan and northeast Indiana area.
Hiring private custodial services saves Brandywine about $170,000 because the district does not have to pay union wages and benefits, Furney said.
Furney also announced Monday during the board of education meeting that the district's transportation, maintenance and food service employees voted last month to join the Michigan Education Association (MEA) union. The employees discontinued in November their agreement with Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
"It was, by those responding, unanimous from that group," Furney said.
SEIU had represented the transportation, maintenance and food service employees since 1984. Furney had no comment on why the switch was being made.
Of the 37 transportation, maintenance and food service employees employed by the district, 27 cast 'yes' votes and one person presented a spoiled ballot, Furney said. Those who abstained from voting were not counted as 'no' votes, or at all, she added.
Rider said the last contract agreed upon by the transportation, maintenance and food service employees expired June 30, 2006, but remains valid until another agreement can be reached through MEA. The district has to "start from scratch" in writing a new contract, Rider said.